On December 11, the Satmar Hasidic community, one of the largest Hasidic communities in the world, will be celebrating the 81st anniversary of the rescue of their founder, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, from the clutches of the Nazis. Rabbi Teitelbaum was a major rabbinic leader in pre-WWII Hungary, and when he stepped onto Swiss soil on December 6, 1944 it gave his followers new hope of rebuilding their lives and their all-but-destroyed world. The rabbi was one of 1,684 Jews who were spared the gas chambers thanks to hefty bribes given by the Jewish community to top S.S. officers in Hungary.
He and his followers soon made Williamsburg, Brooklyn their new home and set to work founding schools, synagogues and other institutions of Hasidic life. From mere a handful in the late forties, the Satmar community has grown to a movement of approximately 150,000 today, with major centers in Williamsburg and Monroe, NY, as well as branches in Montreal, London and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Teitelbaum was famous for his stance on Zionism and the State of Israel. He saw Zionism as idol worship, a nationalist ideology that sought to transform our sacred faith and people into a nationalistic entity versus the Holy People of the Book. The holy Rebbe knew the great dangers Zionism and the State of Israel will pose for Jews in the Holy Land and worldwide. Consequently, Rabbi Teitelbaum spoke out vociferously against the state and encouraged his followers and Orthodox Jews in general to proclaim to the world that they did not support Zionism. His movement became the largest and most famous anti-Zionist Jewish movement in the world, although there are many smaller anti-Zionist sects and in general, most ultra-Orthodox Jews are opposed to Zionism to varying degrees.
The annual celebration of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum's rescue has, over the years, become something like an annual convention for the sect at which tens of thousands gather to hear speeches about their founding principles, including opposition to Zionism. The gathering also serves as a fundraiser for Satmar's system of private schools.
Over the years, True Torah Jews has received many inquiries about the details of the Satmar Rebbe's rescue. Isn't it true, some ask, that his rescue was engineered by the Zionist leader Rudolf Kastner? Why wasn't the Rebbe thankful to the Zionists and to Kastner in particular?
Further Reading:
https://torahjews.org/articles/21-kislev---did-kastner-really-save-the-satmar-rebbe
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